In his first 100 days, Obama has excused torture, opposed habeas corpus and demanded more secret government. He has kept Bush’s gulag intact and at least 17,000 prisoners beyond the reach of justice. On 24 April, his lawyers won an appeal that ruled Guantanamo Bay prisoners were not “persons”, and therefore had no right not to be tortured. His national intelligence director, Admiral Dennis Blair, says he believes torture works. One of his senior US intelligence officials in Latin America is accused of covering up the torture of an American nun in Guatemala in 1989; another is a Pinochet apologist. As Daniel Ellsberg has pointed out, the US experienced a military coup under Bush, whose secretary of “defence”, Robert Gates, along with the same warmaking officials, has been retained by Obama.

All over the world, America’s violent assault on innocent people, directly or by agents, has been stepped up. During the recent massacre in Gaza, reports Seymour Hersh, “the Obama team let it be known that it would not object to the planned resupply of ‘smart bombs’ and other hi-tech ordnance that was already flowing to Israel” and being used to slaughter mostly women and children. In Pakistan, the number of civilians killed by US missiles called drones has more than doubled since Obama took office.

In Afghanistan, the US “strategy” of killing Pashtun tribespeople (the “Taliban”) has been extended by Obama to give the Pentagon time to build a series of permanent bases right across the devastated country where, says Secretary Gates, the US military will remain indefinitely. Obama’s policy, one unchanged since the Cold War, is to intimidate Russia and China, now an imperial rival. He is proceeding with Bush’s provocation of placing missiles on Russia’s western border, justifying it as a counter to Iran, which he accuses, absurdly, of posing “a real threat” to Europe and the US. On 5 April in Prague, he made a speech reported as “anti-nuclear”. It was nothing of the kind. Under the Pentagon’s Reliable Replacement Warhead programme, the US is building new “tactical” nuclear weapons designed to blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war.

Perhaps the biggest lie – the equivalent of smoking is good for you – is Obama’s announcement that the US is leaving Iraq, the country it has reduced to a river of blood. According to unabashed US army planners, as many as 70,000 troops will remain “for the next 15 to 20 years”. On 25 April, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, alluded to this. It is not surprising that the polls are showing that a growing number of Americans believe they have been suckered – especially as the nation’s economy has been entrusted to the same fraudsters who destroyed it. Lawrence Summers, Obama’s principal economic adviser, is throwing $3trn at the same banks that paid him more than $8m last year, including $135,000 for one speech. Change you can believe in.

Rubin, Sumers, and Geithner are now the foxes guarding the henhouse. Obama may have good intentions. His picks were well beyond horrible.

I think he will be far worse than the Bushbarians. And I didn't hardly think that would be possible.

They ran a fairly clean ship in their first 100 days. Took them 8 years for a really stinky resume. Which...to be fair...Obama inherited.

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

I think he will be far worse than the Bushbarians. And I didn't hardly think that would be possible.

They ran a fairly clean ship in their first 100 days. Took them 8 years for a really stinky resume. Which...to be fair...Obama inherited.

I guess that other than stealing an election and planning events for Sept 11 2001 they ran a clean ship. Naw...I'm kidding. They were evil from the git go.

The reason I may agree with you about Obama being worse than the Bush is because Obama is much more intelligent. He is a master illusionist. Bush was a moron. Both are dangerous but more people tend to cheer on the illusionist.

_________________CrimsonEagleThe war to end all wars can only be fought on the front-lines of the mind.

The greatest deception they have perpetrated is that we need them. Our greatest mistake is that we believe them.

The Bushbarians ran out of political capital and were reduced in their ability to inflict harm.

I am hoping that Obamarama becomes similarly unpopular so that their ability to inflict damage is also reduced. I'm pretty sure that will happen pretty soon.

There is genuine hope for a third party right now. Thinking people are waking up to the knowledge that both parties work for .... almost anyone but them. People are really, really ed.

I keep changing my mind about he hierarchy of who has the most power. Corporations with their tens of thousands of lobbyists. Military/Industrial/Intelligence network. Wall Street/Banksters/Fed Reserve/CFR. AIPAC/Israel and their group. Bilderbergers. Congress....well this group has power but it works for the above.

This administration is clearly run by the Wall Street/Banksters/CFR triage.

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

I do not know of a time in written (or for that matter, unwritten) history that there have not been a power elite ruling the rest. Perhaps in prehistoric small nomadic tribes there was less so of one, but I am almost certain that when you get a group of a little more than 20 together alliances will be made and some will be low on the pole, and some high. My logical mind sees no way out of this. I don't particularly like it. In fact, for the present day, I despise the way the world is run and hate that I can not break away or impact things in a larger way. I feel so futile. A lot of times, caring in general seems futile. But I take heart in knowing that making me feel futile is helpful to the power elite. So I try to not despair and try instead to make my tiny, itty place better.

Constantly pointing out the "rulers" to me doesn't seem to help anything at all. I guess, I am more educated in such areas than the random person, and so maybe that's where my lethargy concerning these things comes from. Perhaps some are educated by having this stuff pointed out to them. To me a lot of this amounts to no more than just plain complaining. Not that I don't get mad and complain myself, because I certainly do. But I know that's probably when I am the least effective of all. So what if him or her is in control of everything. How on earth are you, or me, on any of us peons going to do a damn thing about it? I don't even know that our uniting does much good, not that I can see that actually happen among our peers. Our peers are good, I do believe that on the whole, but we care about so many things its nearly impossible to get a group together that has one, solid common goal. So what do we do? We can't leave. Where do we go? Even in tiny "third world" countries there are larger powers at work. And maybe they are not yet under the yolk of the power elite, but they have their own micro-leaders. Their own micro-agendas that will, more likely than not, sooner or later be merged with the larger agenda which is just plain ole control. There is always going to be the "bad" trying to harness and control the "good". But as soon as the shoe changes, the good changes and the bad changes and rolls are just reversed. We hated the republicans and their goals, so no longer do they hold the power. So now we hate the democrats and their goals. Do you not see the silliness of it all? The cycle is unending. At least it is so in my mind.

I don't want torture anywhere. I don't want nuclear weapons. I don't want killings. Where is my power? How can I change these things? Show me.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

If you see it as republicans versus democrats, I can't really communicate.

You seem to be saying......do nothing, its no use. That is essentially justifying apathy.

I'm quite sure that the power elite loves public apathy. Apathy is akin to a sports opponent that just doesn't care about winning.

I see it as totalitarianism and collectivism vs individual rights and individual ownership. Bigger government almost always means more totalitarianism and more collectivism.

Scandinavians seem to be able to handle democratic socialism. It appears that we may find out if we can.

Communism vs Democracy is a bunch of b.s. The world has never seen communism. We call totalitarian countries communist. I am not aware of any true democracies either.

I prefer to call our system a surveillance society that is trying to figure out what to do with the knowledge that it can now prove that society tends to break laws when you have so many laws that the law makers and law enforcers don't know and can't agree on what the laws are.

For now, the consensus being shown is that the elite can interpret and break laws at their leisure. The laws are for us, not for them.

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

I didn't say it was anything about anybody vs anybody else, unless you count peons vs the powerful. And I also didn't say don't do anything. But I don't see the point of constantly saying the exact same thing over and over again. I feel like you didn't even bother to try to understand what I was saying. I do things. I want others to do things, but there is no way on earth you are going to change the nature of power and the struggle for it. Someone's always going to have the power and its probably not going to be you. This generates an environment where you will always have something to dislike, to complain about. I was asking if you had solutions.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

I do not know of a time in written (or for that matter, unwritten) history that there have not been a power elite ruling the rest. Perhaps in prehistoric small nomadic tribes there was less so of one, but I am almost certain that when you get a group of a little more than 20 together alliances will be made and some will be low on the pole, and some high. My logical mind sees no way out of this. I don't particularly like it. In fact, for the present day, I despise the way the world is run and hate that I can not break away or impact things in a larger way. I feel so futile. A lot of times, caring in general seems futile. But I take heart in knowing that making me feel futile is helpful to the power elite. So I try to not despair and try instead to make my tiny, itty place better.

Constantly pointing out the "rulers" to me doesn't seem to help anything at all. I guess, I am more educated in such areas than the random person, and so maybe that's where my lethargy concerning these things comes from. Perhaps some are educated by having this stuff pointed out to them. To me a lot of this amounts to no more than just plain complaining. Not that I don't get mad and complain myself, because I certainly do. But I know that's probably when I am the least effective of all. So what if him or her is in control of everything. How on earth are you, or me, on any of us peons going to do a damn thing about it? I don't even know that our uniting does much good, not that I can see that actually happen among our peers. Our peers are good, I do believe that on the whole, but we care about so many things its nearly impossible to get a group together that has one, solid common goal. So what do we do? We can't leave. Where do we go? Even in tiny "third world" countries there are larger powers at work. And maybe they are not yet under the yolk of the power elite, but they have their own micro-leaders. Their own micro-agendas that will, more likely than not, sooner or later be merged with the larger agenda which is just plain ole control. There is always going to be the "bad" trying to harness and control the "good". But as soon as the shoe changes, the good changes and the bad changes and rolls are just reversed. We hated the republicans and their goals, so no longer do they hold the power. So now we hate the democrats and their goals. Do you not see the silliness of it all? The cycle is unending. At least it is so in my mind.

I don't want torture anywhere. I don't want nuclear weapons. I don't want killings. Where is my power? How can I change these things? Show me.

The bold lines are probably why I interpreted things the way I did. Plus the name....lefty. And some of your history.

But overall, you are probably right. Since I have come to the conclusion that Obama will likely be worse, rather than better, I probably shouldn't rain on lefty's parade.

There aren't as many people in that parade anymore. In fact, the numbers are dropping precipitously. A rather short honeymoon in my estimation.

BTW...I don't just "complain" on the net. Within the past month I lost $60 sponsoring the debut of Core of Corruption in Denver. A couple hundred people in Denver cared enough to show up. But then you figure that roughly 1 in 5 are The Thought Police.

I let my Senator know I was willing to go door to door to gather signatures to audit the Fed.

I'll tell you this, few of our Congress members have a damned clue about economics. Certainly our President is also guilty of that. Could that be part of the problem?

Obama had the perfect opportunity to re-instate the Glass-Steagal Act that would have prevented the meltdown. Not a word was mentioned by his group.

Guess I should focus on those several days of hope that Obama instilled in....2008.

But no....if a studied person analyses the weather and has strong reason to believe that a very bad storm is headed their way, that person should warn others until appropriate measures are taken.

I apologize for being relatively uneffective however. The fact that I am still able to sit here and communicate is possible testimony to that.

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

Its crazy, I guess, maybe amounts to talking out loud to myself and answering, but I am going to quote myself here for a bit and try to explain further what my point was and what it is that I am trying to say.

lefty wrote:

I do not know of a time in written (or for that matter, unwritten) history that there have not been a power elite ruling the rest. Perhaps in prehistoric small nomadic tribes there was less so of one, but I am almost certain that when you get a group of a little more than 20 together alliances will be made and some will be low on the pole, and some high. My logical mind sees no way out of this. I don't particularly like it. In fact, for the present day, I despise the way the world is run and hate that I can not break away or impact things in a larger way. I feel so futile. A lot of times, caring in general seems futile. But I take heart in knowing that making me feel futile is helpful to the power elite. So I try to not despair and try instead to make my tiny, itty place better. Here I am trying to point out the cycle I see throughout history of some sort of elite leading some sort of lower class. This is parallel to what is happening now; what was happening with Bush, Clinton, Reagan, on down the line to infinity. I clearly say that I do things, but feel frustrated because it doesn't seem to change much at all. That's what I mean by the futility of it all. I am not saying that I am apathetic, far from it, but I am saying that its very weary to work against the current and never move one inch forward without first sliding back a mile. Then I clearly state that while I realize I am never going to be able to take the assholes away, I do try to do things to make the world I live in better. They may be small things, but I try. I do things everyday that are harder, because they align with what I believe. If I were apathetic, I wouldn't say I try to do things to help.

Constantly pointing out the "rulers" to me doesn't seem to help anything at all. I guess, I am more educated in such areas than the random person, and so maybe that's where my lethargy concerning these things comes from. Perhaps some are educated by having this stuff pointed out to them. To me a lot of this amounts to no more than just plain complaining. Not that I don't get mad and complain myself, because I certainly do. But I know that's probably when I am the least effective of all. So what if him or her is in control of everything. How on earth are you, or me, on any of us peons going to do a damn thing about it? How are you going to stop all of the large powers you always woe? Quite obviously voting doesn't make a difference. I don't even know that our uniting does much good, not that I can see that actually happen among our peers. Our peers are good, I do believe that on the whole, but we care about so many things its nearly impossible to get a group together that has one, solid common goal. When have you seen any sort of mass appeal for change? Point it out to me, because I haven't seen it. So what do we do? We can't leave. Where do we go? Even in tiny "third world" countries there are larger powers at work. And maybe they are not yet under the yolk of the power elite, but they have their own micro-leaders. Their own micro-agendas that will, more likely than not, sooner or later be merged with the larger agenda which is just plain ole control. There is always going to be the "bad" trying to harness and control the "good". But as soon as the shoe changes, the good changes and the bad changes and rolls are just reversed. We hated the republicans and their goals, so no longer do they hold the power. So now we hate the democrats and their goals. Do you not see the silliness of it all? The cycle is unending. At least it is so in my mind. My saying this about republicans and democrats was merely a relevant example. It wasn't me loving the democrats. If you had actually talked to me a lot, you would know that while I most closely identify with democrats, I am not one. And I'm not in a parade for Obama. My post actually didn't specifically talk about any single person or power structure, I was generalizing the entire concept of the powerful vs the peons. SO try not to just assume things you don't know.

I don't want torture anywhere. I don't want nuclear weapons. I don't want killings. Where is my power? How can I change these things? Show me.

And to answer a few of the other things you said:Great, I'm glad you don't just complain on the net. I wasn't specifically trying to harrass you, I was just creating a dialogue. Haven't you noticed the cycles I'm talking about? Have you found a time in recent or ancient history where this power elite doesn't exist? That's what my discussion was trying to be about.

Also, I didn't say a thing about complaining about torture and that being a problem. I don't see saying something about torture as complaining. My complaint comment was aimed more at the fact that you often lament these groups of people that you see as a threat and I guess I've just heard it so often now it just seems like complaining. No one said I was right about my ideas, I'm just giving my opinion.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

At Obama's news conference on Wednesday night he was asked this question:

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. During the campaign, you criticized President Bush's use of the state secrets privilege, but U.S. attorneys have continued to argue the Bush position in three cases in court. How exactly does your view of state secrets differ from President Bush's? And do you believe presidents should be able to derail entire lawsuits about warrantless wiretapping or rendition if classified information is involved?

Obama's Answer:

OBAMA:

Quote:

I actually think that the state secret doctrine should be modified. I think right now it's overbroad.

But keep in mind what happens, is we come in to office. We're in for a week, and suddenly we've got a court filing that's coming up. And so we don't have the time to effectively think through, what exactly should an overarching reform of that doctrine take? We've got to respond to the immediate case in front of us.

There -- I think it is appropriate to say that there are going to be cases in which national security interests are genuinely at stake and that you can't litigate without revealing covert activities or classified information that would genuinely compromise our safety.

But searching for ways to redact, to carve out certain cases, to see what can be done so that a judge in chambers can review information without it being in open court, you know, there should be some additional tools so that it's not such a blunt instrument. And we're interested in pursuing that. I know that Eric Holder and Greg Craig, my White House counsel, and others are working on that as we speak.

Now, I don't like the warrentless wiretapping idea...never have, and never will....and we common ordinary citizens aren't privy to much (if anything) that the wiretapping has actually done to maintain the national security.

Since Obama came into office, the GOP and its shills, led by Cheney, Faux Noise, and the Repubs in Congress, have tried their dead-level best to drape and smother the country with crepe, trying to keep the sheeple scared shitless about how we're going to be attacked here and annihilated there.

Obama is explaining that he prefers to know more about the issue before he changes it and up to now, hasn't had the time to really give it the attention it deserves. More pressing issues are on his plate. Obama is an ACTIVE president. I HOPE he will, in time, do away with the warrentless wiretapping...but for now, I am glad that he's smart enough to know that he needs to KNOW before he ACTS.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Obama is almost always a world class talker. I have quit listening to the talk. I look at the actions.

The first post by CE focuses on the actions of the first 100 days. Historians may come to regard this as the Greatest Heist in World History.

Do courts let defendants go for being world class talkers? I hope they prefer to look at actions.

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

I am as far as that aspect of his persona goes...because what we've had for the last eight years was a world class, blithering idiot standing up there at the podium behind the US Presidential Seal. Consider the alternative, too...McCain...or Sarah Palin.

Quote:

He is world class master of deception as well.

He's a politician and a certain amount of deception is to be expected.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

At least he tries to show some humanity. I'll give him credit for that.

_________________"If the people allow private banks to control their currency the banks and corporations will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson